Blood and Water
by t-smitts
Summary: When the body of a high school boy missing since 1986 is found at the bottom of the river, one of the detectives makes a startling discovery. COMPLETE! Read & review, please! Now revised slightly.
1. Chapter 1

_Blood and Water_

_The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event._

_September 22, 1986_

_("Invisible Touch" - Genesis)_

_Matt Tamlyn, as usual, was the last one out of Mr. Mueller's Social Studies class. The lanky, bushy-haired senior still managed to squeeze past the other students as he headed towards his locker._

_He darted and maneuvered around the mob of students in the hallway as he made his way to his locker. He didn't notice the short sophomore girl, whose name he remembered was Carrie Lowell, passing him by until she was right next to him. He had to make a quick dodge to avoid hitting her. He tried to excuse himself and gave an awkward look, but saw that she was already heading away._

_The awkward look returned when he reached his locker and found a boy and girl leaning against it, lips against each other. Matt cleared his throat after a moment and the boy and girl finally noticed him and pulled apart with an embarrassed laugh._

_"Don't stop on my account." Matt said, rolling his eyes._

_"Sorry," Justine Brennan, the brunette girl with deep blue eyes said, her arms still around the boy. "We hadn't seen each other all day."_

_"Yeah," Chris Sanders, the young-faced boy added. "Apparently, if you want to get into Harvard, you gotta study hard."_

_Matt simply shrugged._

_"So you still coming with us to the drive-in on Friday?" Chris asked with a smile. "You'll finally get to see _Aliens_."_

_"And it's the last weekend before they close for the winter." Justine added._

_Matt shifted a bit. "You know what? Maybe you should just go without me. I don't want to be a third wheel."_

_Chris gave a sly smile. "Or you could find yourself a fourth wheel."_

_"Who am I gonna find to go with me?" Matt asked, looking around._

_"Well you got a week. You can find someone." Justine said._

_Chris, however, noticed that Matt didn't seem to be looking at either of them anymore. Instead his gaze had wandered over to the blonde a few lockers over, the one with a few colored streaks in her hair who was having a heated conversation with the light-haired boy next to her._

_"Maybe he already has." Chris muttered to Justine._

_"What do you suppose they're fighting about?" Matt asked quietly._

_"She probably caught him with another girl again," Justine said, rolling her eyes. "Steve thinks he's God's gift to women."_

_Chris grinned. "Maybe you wanna see what she was doing on Friday night."_

_Matt turned back around and looked at Chris incredulously. "Are you crazy? I'm not gonna ask out Steve Burton's girl."_

_Justine smiled as she watched the blonde turn her back on Steve and start walking towards them. "Doesn't look like that's gonna be a problem."_

_Chris chuckled "Yeah, you were pining over her all last year and you still didn't say one word to her. This could be the last chance you get."_

_Matt glanced back at her for just a moment before turning back to his friends. "Look, I'm not gonna do anything, all right? Now can we drop this?"_

_Chris shrugged. "Okay, okay." He simply nodded and smiled, and he kept nodding and smiling until Matt had turned away and the blonde was walking right by them._

_Then he bumped Matt right into her path._

_The two collided and fell to the floor. Matt immediately started apologizing profusely, pausing only for a moment to look up and give Chris a glare, until the blonde said it was all right. She stopped gathering her fallen books for a moment when she noticed the shiny metal object dangling from Matt's neck as he bent over to reach a few papers, the one with the name M. TAMLYN engraved on its surface._

_"Cool. What's this?" She asked. "Were you in the army or something?"_

_Matt tried not to blush as she handled the dog tag. "Oh, no, no. It was my uncle's. He died in Vietnam a couple of month before I was born. I was actually named after him. I just... Sometimes I wish I could've known him." Matt look down at the dog tag just for a moment before looking back up at her. "This way I feel like I got a part of him with me."_

_The blonde smiled. "I like that."_

_"Actually I've been trying to find out everything I can about him for this project in Mr. Mueller's class." Matt continued, starting to get a bit more excited. "Turns out he was a really neat guy."_

_"Really?" She asked._

_"Yeah." Matt glanced back at Chris and Justine. "You know, we were uhhh... we were going to the drive-in on Friday. If you wanted to come, I could tell you a little about him."_

_She gave him an unsure smile. "Be kind of hard to talk about him with a movie on, wouldn't it?"_

_Matt simply gave an embarrassed smile and lowered his head. "Right, yeah, right."_

_She turned back to Steve and the unhappy look he was giving her, paused for a moment, then turned back to Matt, pulled a pen from her bag and proceeded to write something on Matt's hand._

_"Call me with the time." She said, smiling before she walked off._

_Matt watched her leave without saying a word, then looked down to the phone number written on his palm. He didn't see Steve storm off in a huff, nor did he hear Chris and Justine's words of congratulations, or notice their slaps on his back. He just stared at the number, an open mouthed grin appearing on his face..._

* * *

_At the bottom of the river, Matt's body lay perfectly still. Wrapped in plastic, not even the current moved it..._

* * *

_The woman simply shook her head and stuck the missing persons notice with Matt's picture and information to the bulletin board._ Probably another teenage runaway, _she thought._ Won't they ever learn?

* * *

"Boss?" Detective Lilly Rush, her partner, Detective Scotty Valens, in tow, called to the man standing over the small army of crime scene investigators at the side of the river as she walked over.

Lieutenant John Stillman turned to look at the two approaching detectives. "Divers were inspecting some underwater pipes when they noticed a couple of bones." Stillman's gaze turned back down to the darkened skeleton with the woman examining it. "Divers found the rest of him wrapped in plastic on the riverbed."

"Young adult male," said Frannie Ching, the medical examiner crouched over the skeleton. "He's been under a good twenty years, at least."

"Cause of death?" Scotty asked?

"Multiple skull fractures." Frannie said, gesturing to a faded brick sitting next to the skull.

"That was wrapped in the plastic along with him." Stillman said, before an investigator a few feet away called him over.

Lilly bent over slightly to get a closer look at the skeleton. "Well, hopefully dental records and missing persons can give us an I.D."

"Might be able to narrow that down." Stillman said, walking back over with something in his hand. "Divers just found this." He held up the shiny metal object dangling from its chain.

"Dog tag." Scotty said, looking at it. "Guy could've been military?"

"Maybe." Stillman said, wiping away some of the grime to read the name on it. "M. TAMLYN"

Neither Stillman nor Scotty noticed the look that suddenly appeared on Lilly's face as Stillman read the name and handed her the tag.

"It was his uncle's." Lilly said quietly, looking at the tag with amazement, suddenly remembering what he'd told her about it that afternoon in the hallway at school years ago.

"Lil?" Stillman asked as he and Scotty turned to her, concerned.

She looked up at them with shock. "I knew this boy."

ROLL INTRO


	2. Chapter 2

Detective Nick Vera looked over at Lilly, who was walking towards Stillman's office, before turning to Kat Miller.

"So Rush knew our vic?" He asked quietly. "What's that about?"

"I don't know anything more about it that you do, all right?" Kat answered, slightly annoyed.

"So she gonna work the case?"

Kat looked at him, not even trying to hide the bothered look on her face. "When it's any of your business, I'm sure someone'll tell you."

Vera simply rolled his eyes and walked off.

* * *

Lilly shut the door behind her once she was inside Stillman's office.

"I gotta ask." Stillman said solemnly. "You gonna be okay working this one?"

Lilly nodded. "I'll be all right. It was a long time ago and I didn't really know him that well."

"Ran with different crowds?"

Lilly nodded, then paused for a moment. "He did ask me out once."

"What'd you tell him?" Stillman said, smiling slightly.

"We were supposed to go to the movies." Lilly said, wistfully. "Never got the chance, though."

* * *

Lilly and Stillman walked out to where the other detectives were gathered, neither noticing the intent look Vera was giving Lilly.

"Matthew Tamlyn, seventeen." Detective Will Jeffries said, reading one of the files. "Reported missing after he didn't come home from school on a Friday afternoon."

"Only child, lived with his father." Kat continued. "Mother died in childbirth."

"Straight-A student, no run-ins." Scotty added.

"So who wants to bludgeon this kid with a brick?" Kat asked.

"They were doing construction on the school at the time." Lilly said, looking up in thought. "Replacing one of the brick walls."

"So that's probably where the doer got the murder weapon, and the plastic." Scotty said.

"Plus the school's not far from the river." Vera added.

"So it's more than likely someone familiar with the school grounds." Stillman said, nodding. "Another student, teacher."

"But first we gotta talk to his father." Scotty said, solmenly. "Been holdin' out hope for twenty-two years his son might come home someday."

Lilly nodded. "Now we have to tell him he never will."

* * *

At first glance, Richard Tamlyn looked pretty good for a man in his sixties, at least until Kat saw his face up close and saw the lines that two decades of waiting had for this moment left on his face.

"It never made any sense." Richard said, sitting down in his living room chair and breathing heavily after Kat and Jeffries told him about the dog tag. "Matt wasn't the runaway type. He was book smart, like his mother. He spend his weekends in his room studying."

"We're very sorry." Kat said sincerely.

"Can you think of anyone who might have had problems with your son, anyone at school?" Jeffries asked gently.

"He was just a kid who liked to read and write." Richard answered. "I never heard about him getting into things with anyone. Maybe he just didn't wanna talk to me about it."

"Anyone he might've talked with? Any friends?" Kat asked.

Richard leaned over and pulled a book from the shelf behind him, a yearbook. He leafed through the pages before finding one of Matt sitting on the school lawn, smiling happily, with Chris and Justine sitting next to him, smiling as well.

"There was only two friends Matt ever brought around; Chris Sanders and Justine Brennan. They all grew up on this block. Those three were inseparable."

"May we borrow this?"

Richard handed it to her. "Please, take it, if it'll help."

Kat nodded but Richard continued before she could ask anything else.

"You know at some point you realize he's not coming back, that you're just waiting for someone to knock on your door." He sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. "I thought I was ready for this day. I thought I'd prepared for..." He trailed off.

Kat looked at the man empathetically, an image of Veronica flashing through her mind just for a moment. "There's no preparing for something like that."

A pained look appeared on Richard's face and he lowered and shook his head in acknowledgment.

* * *

Everything about the upscale fashion outlet looked expensive and stylish, including it's owner, Justine, who nodded solemnly as Scotty and Jeffries asked question.

"Matt, Chris, and I, we had our own little world, the three of us." She said smiling wistfully. "Stayed that way into high school, most of the time."

"Most of the time?" Jeffries asked.

Justine gave an embarrassed smile. "Well... when boys and girls get older, they start looking at each other differently. I started to have some feelings for Chris and him for me. In high school we started dating. I think Matt started to feel like the odd man out sometimes."

"Anyone else Matt woulda hung out with?" Scotty asked.

"Well he spent most of his time studying so he never really had time for other friends. He was a little shy around girls too most of the time." She chucked and looked down for a moment. "He actually had a huge crush on this one girl. A blonde named Lilly... something." Justine didn't notice the look and slight smile that Scotty and Jeffries gave each other.

"Can you think of anyone who might have had a problem with Matt?" Jeffries asked.

Justine paused for a moment, the smile fading from her face. "There's only one time I can think of. It actually has to do with that girl he liked, after he finally worked up the nerve to ask her out..."

* * *

_("Hip To Be Square" - Huey Lewis and the News)_

_Justine and Chris looked up from each other's gaze to see Matt and Lilly walking toward the table. Lilly gave a flirty wave to Matt and walked off as he sat down next to Justine._

_"She's not gonna join us?" Justine asked._

_Matt kept his gaze on Lilly as she walked towards the exit. "She said she had some errand to run. Something about her mom."_

_Justine giggled as Matt remained fixated on Lilly as she walked out the door. Chris just rolled his eyes._

_"All right, all right. Knock it off." Chris said with a smirk. "You think you're the first guy to ask out a girl he likes and get a 'yes'?"_

_"Okay, sorry." Matt said, chuckling. "So things worked out on the scholarship front? They signed off on it?"_

_Justine and Chris nodded and looked at each other affectionately. "This time next year we'll be Harvard-bound."_

_Chris looked back at Matt wistfully. "Won't be the same without you though."_

_Matt shrugged. "Seriously though, if I wanna get into any college. I gotta get back on track with this project."_

_"The one about your uncle?" Justine asked._

_Matt nodded. "I think my dad's pretty much run out of stories. I talked to some of his old army buddies and got a few things from them. Someone thought he might've been seeing someone around the time he died. I wanna look into that."_

_"You should be careful." Justine said. "Some people might not like you asking a bunch of questions."_

_Matt shrugged. "I know it might be hard sometimes, but if you don't ask questions, how are you ever gonna get to the truth?"_

_Justine and Chris looked at each other thoughtfully before they turned to see the young man walking menacingly towards Matt._

_"Hey!" Steve growled. "You got a lot of nerve askin' my girl out!"_

_"Excuse me?" Matt said, standing up with an annoyed look._

_"What, you think you can ask her out like that right in front of me?" Steve barked._

_"You're one to talk, Steve." Justine said. "Everybody knows about you."_

_"Yeah!" Chris added, standing up. "You got a problem with my friend, you got a problem with me."_

_Steve looked over at Chris, who had a good six inches of height over Steve, then back to Matt._

_"Your buddies won't always be around to back you up." Steve sneered before storming off._

_Matt and Chris just rolled their eyes and sat back down._

* * *

"So Steve had it out for Matt?" Jeffries asked.

Justine sighed. "Steve Burton thought he walked on water. He thought no one could ever take anything that was his, least of all a girl."

Scotty nodded. "Till Matt stood up to him, bruised his ego."

Justine nodded.

"And Chris'll be able to corroborate this?" Scotty asked.

"He should." Justine answered. "We broke up in college. I haven't seen him in years." She shook her head. "We had all these plans to go the same school and then have a life together. Didn't quite work out that way."

"Thanks for your help. If you remember anything else..." Jeffries placed a card on the counter.

"If you happen to talk to Chris," she said with a hint of anxiousness to the detectives as they walked towards the door, causing them to turn back to her. "Tell him I said 'hi'."

Scotty and Jeffries looked each other, amused.

* * *

Scotty looked over Lilly's shoulder as she looked at the picture of Matt in the yearbook.

"Takin' a trip down memory lane?" He asked?

Lilly shrugged. "Just trying to figure out who he was. Never really got to know him."

"Just promise me you won't go runnin' off to any abandoned cabins this time." Scotty said with a smirk.

At her desk, Kat hung up the phone and shook her head. "Still haven't been able to get a hold of Chris Sanders."

"Guy doesn't wanna be found." Scotty said.

"Where are we on Steve Burton?" Stillman asked.

"I talked to his boss, Steve called in sick today." Vera said. "Which, according to him, means he's probably trying to score at his favorite watering hole, a place called Goodwin's."

"I know that dive." Kat said. "Pick-up bar for cougars and sugar daddies."

"I'll take a look." Lilly said, getting up. "Maybe Steve'll be more willing to talk for old times' sake."

"I'll go with you." Kat said, getting up with a slight smile. "This I gotta see."

* * *

Steve Burton, with the same chiseled jaw and lustful eyes, turned as his barstool swivelled over to where the bartender was pointing him out to the two women approaching him. Steve's smug grin widened as he recognized one of them.

"It's a little early in the day for one of those." Lilly said, gesturing to the drink in his hand.

"I'll be damned. Lilly Rush!" Steve said, looking her over. "Wow, well time has been very good to you." Steve chuckled, not noticing the noise Kat made as she rolled her eyes. "So what brings you here?"

"It's Detective Lilly Rush now, Homicide."

Steve's smile faded. "Guess you're not here to talk about old times then."

"Actually we are. We're looking into Matt Tamlyn's murder."

Steve leaned back on his stool. "Murder? You're telling me someone actually found him?"

"Yeah, at the bottom of the river." Kat said without a smile.

Lilly's smile grew more condescending. "Remember that afternoon Matt asked me out in the hallway? Heard you didn't take it too well."

"You hassling him at lunch the next day, some people might see that as motive." Kat added.

Steve shook his head and chuckled. "Oh, come on! I was just making some noise. That's all." He shrugged. "I had another girl lined up the next day. What can I say? I was an alpha male.

Kat and Lilly just looked at each other.

"In fact, it turned out Matt and I had more in common than I thought."

"What does that mean?" Lilly asked, tilting her head.

Steve's smug grin returned. "Let's just say I wasn't the only one playing the field..."

* * *

_("Take on Me" - a-ha)_

_Leaning against the locker, Steve chuckled as the younger girl nodded._

_"It's sounds like a cool place." Carrie said, ambivalently. "I don't think they'd let me in though."_

_Steve shrugged. "It's no problem. I know a guy who makes I.D.'s. Never had any problems." Steve leaned closer suggestively. "Come on, it'll be fun."_

_"Hey!" said the sharp voice from behind Steve. He turned around to see Matt glaring at him angrily. "What do you think you're doing? Get the hell away from her!"_

_"Oh, what do you want now?" Steve asked, annoyed. "What, did you get tired of Lil already or you just seeing if you can handle two at once?"_

_"I'm not kidding!" Matt said, leaning closer. "Stay away from her if you know what's good for you!"_

_"Is there a problem here, gentlemen?" Came a quiet voice from over Steve's other shoulder. All three kids turned to the tall, thin, middle-aged man standing over them, arms crossed._

_"Uhhh... no problem, Mr. Mueller." Steve said, lowering his voice submissively. "Matt and I were just having a little debate. That's all."_

_Mr. Mueller nodded skeptically. "Well, in the future, save the debates for my classroom. Now maybe you should move along." Matt and Steve nodded as the teacher walked off. Steve quickly followed but stopped as soon as Steve turned a corner._

_"What do you think you're doing?" Carrie asked irritably._

_"Look, you don't wanna be hanging around with a jerk like him. Trust me."_

_"I don't need you telling me what I want!" Carrie snapped, causing Matt to recoil._

_"I was just trying to help." Matt said softly._

_"I didn't ask for your help!" Carrie hissed. "I don't even wanna know you!"_

_Matt just looked at her. "Look, Carrie, I--"_

_"Just stay the hell away from me," she said with a glare, "if you know what's good for _you!_"_

_Steve watched with surprise as the girl stormed off._

* * *

Steve chuckled. "Yeah, that Carrie girl had some real issues going on. Real hot and cold type. I'm thinkin' Matt did me a favor taking her off my hands. Otherwise, maybe it would've been me who went missing." He gave a shrug. "Sorry if he didn't live up to your knight in shining armor image."

"Right. Thanks." Lilly said simply, placing a card on the bar, which Steve quickly scooped up.

"This your number?" Steve asked, reading it with a grin.

"It's the number for Homicide." Lilly said, the condescending look returning.

"Right." Steve looked up at her. "So you doing anything when you get off?"

"My schedule's pretty full." She said, walking off.

* * *

"You up for poker tonight?" Scotty asked as he and Vera walked through the law firm's hallway.

Vera shook his head. "Toni's got some dinner plans."

Scotty chuckled and shook his head.

"What?" Vera asked.

"Nothin'. Just wonderin' now that you're all tied down whose money am I gonna take?"

The chuckling stopped when they reached Carrie's office and heard the throaty and very heated voice yelling into a phone.

"Oh, it's not in your client's best interests? Okay, fine! How about I drag your client's sorry ass into court? Is that in his best interests? Don't call me back until you have a serious offer!" She slammed the phone down and looked up at the two men standing before her, both taken aback. "Yes!?" She asked impatiently. Scotty and Vera looked at each other uneasily before turning back to her.

"Carrie Lowell?" Scotty asked tentatively and waiting until she nodded curtly. "Detectives Valens and Vera, Homicide. We had a few questions about Matt Tamlyn."

Some of the color drained from Carrie's face. "Homicide? About Matt?"

"Yeah." Scotty said, grimly. "We found him."

Carrie took a deep breath and sat down.

"We heard you and Matt may have had a thing goin' on back in high school." Vera said.

"A thing?" She asked.

"That you two may have been an item." He continued.

Carrie leaned forward, looking puzzled. "What? Who told you that?"

"That wasn't the case?" Scotty asked.

"Matt and I weren't dating." Carrie said, looking at the two intently. "He was my brother."


	3. Chapter 3

Scotty looked at Carrie with disbelief. "Your brother?"

Carrie nodded. "I only found out a few days before Matt disappeared"

Scotty and Vera leaned closer, waiting for her to continue.

"Matt was doing some research project on his uncle for school, trying to find about things about him. He heard his uncle had been seeing a woman before he was killed in Vietnam, my mother. Except he found out he was off by a few years about when they were seeing each other, and it wasn't his uncle who'd been seeing her. It was his father."

"So Matt told you?" Vera asked.

"I didn't believe him at first. Then he showed me something that convinced me..."

* * *

_("True Colors" - Cyndi Lauper)_

_Sitting in the library, Carrie sighed impatiently. "I don't know what I'm doing here."_

_"I just want to show you something." Matt said, quietly._

_"What do you think you're trying to prove?" Carrie asked, irritably. "We're not related, all right?"_

_Matt sat down next to her and leaned closer. "Look, maybe this is a long shot, but I thought of something." With that, he pulled the dog tag from around his neck and showed it to her. "This belong to my uncle before he died. My dad wanted me to have it so I'd feel like I'd known him. There's supposed to be two of these on here but for as long as I can remember, there's just been the one. My dad said he lost the other one when I was about two. That's right around the time you would've been born, right? That's a funny coincidence, don't you think?"_

_Carrie looked at the tag and didn't say anything._

_"Do you remember seeing anything like that ever?"_

_Carrie stared at the tag for a moment then turned away. For a moment Matt thought he'd made a mistake. Then she opened a pouch on her bag and pull something out._

_It was a tag just like Matt's._

_"My mom said this was from my dad. It's the only thing she'd tell me about him."_

_Matt smiled and looked at her._

_"Do you... do you want to meet him?"_

_Carrie eyed him warily for a moment, then started breathing heavily. "No," she said, standing up. "No, I don't. I can't deal with this, all right? Just stay away from me."_

_She walked towards the exit, glancing back to see Matt sigh and lower his head._

* * *

"Hell of a bombshell to just drop on somebody like that." Vera said.

"Yeah," Carrie answered with a condescending nod. "High school was miserable enough without somebody putting something like that on you too."

"So you talk with Matt much after that?" Scotty asked.

"We weren't exactly hanging out together." Carrie said. "My mom never wanted to tell me anything about who my father was. After she died a few years ago, I wasn't interested in finding out. I'm still not." She sighed. "I'm sorry about Matt, but the truth is I wasn't a part of his life and I never would've been."

* * *

"You didn't tell us about your daughter, Richard." Jeffries said from across the interview room table.

Richard stared at Scotty and Jeffries in disbelief. "You saw her? You talked to her?"

"Is there a reason you left that out before?" Scotty asked.

Richard shook his head, still looking stunned. "What could that possibly have to do what happened to Matt?"

"Why don't you let us decide that?" Scotty said, with a trace of impatience.

"Look, it wasn't like I was some deadbeat dad who left a pregnant woman."

"So what happened?" Jeffries asked.

Richard sighed and lowered his head. "I lost a brother and a wife in the span of five months. I was taking care of a baby all by myself. I was lonely, confused. Eventually I started seeing this woman at my work, nothing serious, didn't last long. A few weeks later, she calls me out of the blue, tells me she's pregnant, and she wants to keep the baby."

He looked up at the detectives sadly. "I was willing to make a go at it with her, but she made it clear she wasn't interested in raising someone else's kid, and she said if I wasn't gonna be there, she didn't want me around the baby. She said half a father's worse than no father at all." He gave the detectives a pleading look. "What the hell was I supposed to do? Matt didn't have anyone else. I convinced her to take the tag. I though when the baby grew up, she should have _something_ to remember me by." He sighed. "I never even got to see her, but knowing she was out there somewhere, I tried to take comfort in that after Matt..."

Scotty nodded quietly for a moment. "So you knew Matt found her."

"He told me." Richard said. "I didn't know what to tell. I just did the best I could..."

* * *

_("The Way It Is" - Bruce Hornsby and the Range)_

_"I'm not mad." Matt said, sitting in the car outside of the school. "I just don't understand why you didn't tell me all this time."_

_Richard sighed. "I don't know. I meant to tell you. I just wasn't sure how to do it." He leaned closer. "Listen, son, you gotta remember this is a big deal for her too. You can't just force your way into someone else's life."_

_Matt shrugged. "I'm not trying to force anything, dad. I just want to get to know her better. Don't you?"_

_Richard looked as though he were somewhere far off for a moment, before turning back to Matt. "Yeah, I do. But that could take some time. And you gotta be ready to give her some space if she wants it."_

_Matt nodded._

_Richard put a hand on his son's arm. "I know it's a little confusing. Sometimes life throws you a curve, trust me. All you can do is try your best to do the right thing. You know?"_

_Matt smiled slightly and nodded again._

_Richard smiled back and patted him on the arm. "Okay. Pick you up after school."_

_As Matt stepped out of the car, he looked over to see Chris rushing up to him. "Look, we gotta talk."_

_Matt looked uneasy.. "About what?"_

_Chris gave him a look of disbelief. "What do you mean 'what'? You know exactly what I'm talking about. Are you actually gonna go through with it?"_

_"Why not?"_

_"Look, I don't wanna get involved all right? It'll probably just make things worse."_

_Matt shook his head. "How could it make things worse?"_

_"Look, it's just not a good idea, all right? I don't wanna get in the middle of this." Chris gave Matt a serious look. "And neither should you."_

_Chris stormed off, with Matt following, calling after him, leaving Richard in the car, looking very confused..._

* * *

"You know what Chris was talking about?" Scotty asked.

Richard shook his head.. "I don't know. He was going on about something. I just assumed it was some teenager stuff, nothing serious."

Jeffries and Scotty gave a suspicious look to one another.

Richard looked at the detectives intently. "Did you guys really talk to her?"

Scotty nodded solemnly.

"I never even knew her name."

Scotty paused for a moment, as if considering something, then looked back at Richard. "Carrie. Her name's Carrie."

Richard nodded, his eyes misting. "Would you tell her, if she ever wanted to meet... or talk, I'm still around."

The two detectives nodded in acknowledgment and walked out of the room.

"So Matt and Chris were into something together," Jeffries said once they were out of earshot. "Something Chris didn't want to be part of."

"We need to talk to Chris." Scotty said. "Find out what that was and how badly Chris wanted out."

* * *

Chris Sanders looked uneasily at Stillman the following day, not noticing Lilly watching on the other side of the two-way mirror.

"You're a hard man to find, Chris." Stillman said, sitting down.

Chris shrugged. "I wasn't hiding from anyone. I had my kids for the day. We went for a drive, and I turned my phone off so no one from work would bother me. I didn't know anyone was looking for me."

"We have a witness that saw you arguing with Matt outside the school a couple of days before he was killed, about you not wanting to get in the middle of something."

Chris paused, then nodded quicky. "Yeah, I remember, and if he's dead then I was right."

"Right about what?" Stillman asked, leaning closer.

"About not wanting to get involved."

"Involved with what, Chris?" Stillman asked sternly. "What were you and Matt up to?"

Chris shook his head. "It's not what we were up to." The look on his face turned nervous. "Have you talked to Russ Mueller?"

"The social studies teacher?" Stillman asked. "Why?"

Chris rolled his eyes. "Some teacher he was. If he found out Matt knew what he was doing," Chris gave a pained look. "Then it's no wonder Matt ended up dead."


	4. Chapter 4

Stillman looked on while Chris continued. "Matt and I stayed late after school the night before. Matt wanted to go talk to Mr. Mueller some questions about this project he was working on." Chris sighed and shook his head. "The door was closed and blind on it was down, but we could see a bit under it. Mr. Mueller was in there with this girl, and they were..." Chris shifted uncomfortably.

"Matt was shock, so I dragged him out of there. I just wanted to forget what I saw. I thought Matt did too at first, until the next morning..."

* * *

_("The Boys of Summer" - Don Henley)_

_Chris and Matt rushed around the corner of the school and looked around to make sure no one else was near._

_"Look, I thought we agreed last night we weren't gonna tell anyone about this!" Chris hissed, trying to catch his breath._

_"You can't ask me to do that!" said Matt._

_"Why not? We don't know her." Matt looked uncomfortable while Chris continued. "We don't know what was going on. Maybe she wanted to."_

_"He's a teacher! That's just sick!" Matt said with disbelief. "I can't believe I looked up to him."_

_"Look," said Chris, calming down. "Me and Justine had a plan, all right? We're gonna be at Harvard next year, and I don't want to risk screwing everything up by getting in the middle of something like this."_

_"Chris..." Matt started, sympathetically._

_"Matt, please." Chris put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm begging you, man. I don't wanna get in involved in this. I just want to get on with my life, you know?"_

_Matt looked down for a moment, then back up at him, with a look of disappointment and sighed._

_Chris look back at him until he turned to see Justine walking towards them, smiling._

_"Hey!" Justine said, cheerfully. "What are you guys up to?"_

_Chris looked at Matt anxiously until Matt answered._

_"Nothing much." Matt said evenly with a slightly forced smile._

_Chris let out a sigh of relief as the three of them walked back to the front of the school..._

* * *

"So you tried to talk Matt out of telling anyone." Stillman said.

Chris nodded. "I was freaked out what might happen if we told anyone. I thought I convinced him, but maybe not."

"And you never told anyone what you saw?" Stillman asked.

Chris shook his head, solemnly.

"Even after Matt disappeared?"

Chris hung his head. "All I cared about was sticking to the plan. Guess that makes me a pretty lousy friend."

* * *

Scotty and Vera looked around the study in Russ Mueller's home, it was plastered with so many framed awards and certificates, they almost couldn't tell what color the walls were. To Scotty, however, it just looked like the home of the world's biggest narcist.

"It's a real shame about Matt." Mueller said, evenly. "One of the brightest students I ever had. Really smart kid."

Scotty gave a condescending smile. "Maybe too smart for his own good."

"Excuse me?" Mueller asked.

The smile didn't waver. "Matt found out what you were doin' to that girl."

"Then winds up at the bottom of the river." added Vera.

Mueller remained eerily calm. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Really? Cause we checked your history." Vera went on. "Seems you transferred to Matt's school after a little incident with your last job, a student accusing you of assaulting her."

Mueller shook his head slowly. "Those accusations were made by a troubled and confused young girl who, I might add, recanted her entire story soon after."

"Guess you're just real unlucky." Vera sneered. "All these false accusations following you around."

"I had nothing to do with that boy's death, and I can prove it." Mueller pointed to a framed newspaper clipping on the wall, the picture showing Mueller's younger self proudly holding up a plaque, surrounded by several other people. "The night he disappeared, I was at a ceremony, being named Teacher of the Year. I went there straight from work and didn't leave until well after midnight."

Scotty glared at Mueller while he continued. "As for that other matter, when you work with kids, they can lash out sometimes, say things they don't mean, things that aren't true. But up until the day I retired, they were all I cared about." He gave Scotty a condescending smile of his own. "Sometimes I had to be a little... creative in how I helped some of them, but I can honestly say, in thirty years of teaching, I have no regrets."

"You sick son of a bitch." Scotty advanced menacingly at Mueller.

"Scotty." Vera said, causing him to stop.

Mueller looked at Scotty and Vera. "I think that's all I have to say to you gentlemen, at least without a lawyer present, so I'll bid you both a good day."

Vera started to walk out but Scotty paused a moment. "Don't start thinkin' we're done with you, _Russ_." Scotty said, more even-tempered though he said Mueller's first name with more than a small dose of contempt. "You're gonna see me again, real soon."

* * *

Back at the precinct, Jeffries shook his head. "Checked out Mueller's alibi. Rock solid."

"Doesn't change what he was doin' to those girls, and God knows how many others." Scotty snorted. "Teacher of the Year."

"Chris saw what Mueller was doing too." Kat said. "Maybe we can get him to testify."

"Chris has a history of gettin' squirrely when he sees trouble." Vera said. "Not exactly a guy I'd be eager to put on the stand."

Stillman, who'd been standing over them, turned to see Lilly get up from her desk, the yearbook still open, and walk over.

"Boss," she said, uneasily. "You got a minute?"

"Yeah, sure." Stillman said, escorting her over to his office, ignoring the curious looks from the others.

* * *

"Lil," Stillman said with a concerned look once the door was closed. "Mueller didn't ever--"

"No." Lilly said, calmly. "No, I never even had him as a teacher." She shook her head. "Probably dodged a bullet there."

"Then what is it?"

"It's something about Matt, something I remembered. I wasn't sure if it was something worth talking about, but that Friday, I talked to him. He had something on his mind..."

* * *

_("Someday" - Glass Tiger)_

_Just out of the last class of the day, Lilly was walking by a large book shelf in the library when she noticed Matt sitting on the floor in a corner, his eyes fixed on the dog tag he was holding._

_"Matt?" She asked as she approached him._

_Slightly startled, Matt looked up at her. "Oh, hey, Lilly."_

_"You all right?" She asked, concerned._

_Matt paused for a moment, then nodded. "I was just thinking about something."_

_"What?" She asked, sitting down next to him._

_Matt looking down, appearing to remember something, then looked back at her. "You got a sister, right?"_

_Lilly nodded._

_"She ever get in trouble?"_

_Lilly rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah."_

_"But you still look out for her, right? I mean, she's your sister."_

_"Sure."_

_Matt nodded and looked down._

_"Why are you asking?"_

_Matt looked back at her and shook his head. "I just thinking about stuff, like what I wanna do when I finish school." He gave her a slight smile. "What do you wanna do?"_

_Lilly smiled back. "I'm not sure. I think something where I could help people, make a difference in their lives."_

_Matt nodded. "I'd like something like that too. Something where I can find things out, you know, like a journalist or something."_

_"Yeah?" Lilly asked, amused._

_"My dad says my mom was like that and that I got it from her. I'm always trying to learn things. If something's wrong, I wanna find out about it, try and make it right." He gave a nervous laugh and a wistful look passed over his face. "Not everyone likes that. Some people think I should mind my own business."_

_"I don't think that." She said, putting her hand over his. "I think that's kinda brave."_

_Matt looked at her intently with a smile for a moment before leaning in closer. Lilly did as well, closing her eyes, until their lips met._

_The kiss was a brief one, but time seemed to stand still. When they finally pulled back, Lilly couldn't help but laugh at the amazed expression on Matt's face._

_"You're right." Matt said, suddenly sounding more confident, as he stood up. "I gotta go find her. I gotta talk to her."_

_"Talk to who?" Lilly asked as Matt helped her up. "Matt, what's going on?"_

_Matt chuckled and rolled his eyes. "It's a long story. I'll tell you at the drive-in tonight."_

_Lilly nodded and Matt rushed off, leaving her standing there with a smile..._

* * *

"That was the last I saw him." Lilly said, her gaze somewhere far away.

"Matt was asking about your sister, about looking out for her." Stillman said, thoughtfully.

"Probably thinking about his own sister," Lilly said solemnly. "But looking out for her from what?"

Stillman frowned in thought. "He said if something was wrong he wanted to make it right. We know he found out what Mueller was up to."

"But what does that have to do with her?" Lilly asked, suddenly looking up at him as something occurred to her. "Unless..."

"Carrie was the girl he saw Mueller with." Stillman finished, coming to the same conclusion.

"And he went to let her know he was going to tell what happened," added Lilly.

"She wasn't interested in getting to know him." Stillman said. "Him interfering in her life like that's probably the last thing she wanted."

"Maybe she decided there was only one way to get him to back off," Lilly sighed. "We'd better have another talk with her."

Stillman paused while Lilly headed out of the office. She was almost at the door when he spoke up. "No. Not you, Lil."

"Boss?" She looked back at him, confused.

"I'm glad you told me about this, but how long did you wait before you did?" His voice was calm but she could see the disapproval on his face.

"I wasn't hiding anything. I just wasn't sure about talking about it."

Stillman sighed. "Look, working cold jobs, it's not too often we get a victim we actually knew."

"What are you saying?" Lilly asked uneasily.

"I'm saying I think you got a little too much history with this case to be objective." He looked at her intently. "I'm taking you off this one."

Lilly's eyes widened. "Boss..." she started to protest.

"Discussion's over." He said quietly, cutting her off. Without another word, he walked out, leaving her standing there in disbelief.


	5. Chapter 5

Sitting in the interview room, Carrie looked warily at Kat until Scotty walked in. He calmly set a mug of coffee down in front of her, before placing his papers on the table and taking a seat.

"Someone in my family was... taken advantage of by this coach when he was a kid," Scotty started, giving her a solemn look. "I didn't really understand what was happening to him at the time. I was just a kid myself. Didn't really understand until years later. I tried to get him to talk about it at first but..."

As he trailed off, Scotty could see her eyes glisten, and noticed her biting her lip slightly.

"I think he thought that burying it was the only way he could go on. So that's what he did for years. Then when I showed up, trying to bring all this stuff out into the open, it rattled him. Didn't know how to handle it. He even lashed out a bit."

"Is there a point to this?" Carrie asked, uneasily.

"Carrie, we know what Mr. Mueller was doing to you." Kat said gently.

"And we know Matt found out about it." Scotty added. "He was lookin' for you; to let you know he was gonna tell someone."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Carrie said impatiently, unable to look at either of them.

"It's okay, Carrie, you can tell us what happened."

"Nothing happened, all right?" Carrie continued, trying to hold herself together.

"Look, we can understand if you were angry at Matt." Kat said. "Him coming around, sticking his nose in something that wasn't his business."

Scotty nodded. "Actin' all high and mighty. Thinks he's got all the answers, when maybe he's just makin' things worse."

Kat shrugged. "If you ask me, sounds like he didn't care about anyone but himself."

"Don't say that!" Carrie suddenly snapped, tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't say he didn't care! You didn't know him!"

Scotty and Kat leaned back in their chairs. Carrie looked back at both of them, a tear finally falling.

"Matt found you, didn't he?" Kat asked, softly.

Carrie nodded.

"Wanted to talk to you." Scotty said. "Get to know you."

"He did want that." Carrie said sadly. "But there was something else that was more important to him..."

* * *

_Matt walked down the empty hallways, not sure if there were any other students left in the building. He'd almost decided she'd left already, when he turned a corner and saw her. She was leaning against a locker, staring at the door to the classroom, the blind on the window drawn. Matt didn't want to imagine what she was going through her head that moment. He just walked up to her, ignoring the unwelcome stare she gave him as she noticed him._

_"Is he in there?" Matt asked, giving the classroom door a glare._

_"No," she said. "He already left."_

_He turned back to her, looking concerned. "Are you okay?"_

_Carrie finally faced him, a pained look on her face. "What do you want from me, Matt?"_

_"I don't want anything. I just..." He trailed off and sighed, before looking back at her with a resigned look in his eyes. "Look, I'll leave you alone, if that's what you want, but I'm not gonna pretend I don't know what he's doing." He shook his head. "I can't do that."_

_"I didn't ask you to get involved." Carrie said, her voice breaking._

_"I know." He nodded. "But I have to." _

_Matt looked down at his dog tag. "My dad always says that sometimes life throws you a curve, and all you can do is try to do the right thing. I never really understood what he meant by that, until I met you."_

_Carrie just looked at him, blinking back tears_

_"I'm gonna tell my dad what he's doing. It's gonna be over."_

_Matt started down the hallway, before turning back to her with a slight smile._

_"Whatever happens," he paused for a moment to keep from choking up. "I'm glad I got to know you."_

_Carrie just watched him as he walked away._

_The hallway was silent again for a few minutes until Carrie heard a door handle turning behind her. She turned to see the classroom door open and Justine stumble out, trying to keep her torn blouse closed as sobs racked her shaking body. Her hair was disheveled, and her make-up ruined from tears._

_Justine's red eyes locked with Carrie's just for a moment, and Carrie gave her a solemn, knowing look. Carrie didn't say a word. She just watched as Justine gripped her blouse tighter and hurried off, still sobbing..._

* * *

"_Justine_ was in there?" Kat asked.

Carrie tilted her head. "You didn't think I was the only one, did you?"

Kat didn't answer. Her mind was already elsewhere. Giving Scotty a quick look, she stood up and walked out of the room.

Scotty was silent for a moment before he too got up. A look from Carrie stopped him before he reached the door.

"That guy you were talking about," she asked anxiously. "What ended up happening to him?"

Scotty paused, thinking back to the conversation he'd had with his brother a year and a half earlier in a room only a few feet away, then smiled slightly. "He came forward, helped put the guy away. I know it wasn't easy, but I think he's glad he did."

Carrie nodded and let herself catch her breath before she spoke. "There were a few other girls you might want to talk to."

Scotty nodded solemnly, then sat back down and started writing while Carrie started to speak.

* * *

Out in the squad room, Stillman frowned in thought. "So Justine finds out Matt's going to expose Mueller, and Justine shuts him up?"

Kat shrugged. "Might've been desperate not to let anyone find out her secret."

"Might be more to it than that." Vera said, hurrying over, carrying a small stack of papers. "It was just a hunch, but I contacted the records office at Harvard. Guy over there owes me a big favor."

Kat eyed him suspiciously. "How's a guy working at Harvard end up owing you a favor?"

Vera rolled his eyes and held up a hand. "Long story. Anyway, I was able to convince him to fax me a copy of Justine's application. Includes a glowing recommendation from one of her high school teachers. Three guesses which one."

Jeffries shook his head. "Mueller."

Vera nodded. "If I had to guess, I'd say he helped her get into Harvard, and what Carrie saw was the payment."

"If Matt exposed Mueller, he goes to jail, and she doesn't go to Harvard." Scotty added.

Stillman nodded. "Well that's motive, but how'd she get him to the river? She didn't have a car."

Kat thought for a moment. "Chris did."

"Yeah, but those two were crazy about each other." Scotty said. "Would he really let her sell herself out to Mueller, then help her cover it up?"

"Assuming he even knew." Jeffries said.

Kat looked at the others. "Maybe it's time we found out how much Chris knew about what his girl was up to."

* * *

Chris practically bolted out of his chair as Jeffries and Vera walked into the interview room. "I swear to God, I didn't kill Matt!" He exclaimed, the panic clear in his voice.

"Sit down." Vera said, his words putting Chris back in his seat. "Lotta stuff not adding up, Chris."

"What do you mean?" Chris eyed them nervously.

Jeffries looked at him intently. "For starters, you don't think it's a little strange that the teacher you caught assaulting Matt's sister goes on to help your girl get into the same school you're going to?"

Chris leaned back. "His sister? That was her?"

"So you and Justine knew Matt had a sister?" Jeffries asked, skeptically.

"He told us about her. We never met her."

"Funny how you never told anyone about any of this when your friend first went missing." Jeffries said.

"Course not. If Mueller gets busted, he can't help your girl go the same school as you." Vera added.

"Well maybe Mueller did it!"

Vera shook his head. "No, that perv's got an alibi."

"Well so do I! I was with my parents that night. Ask them!"

"They gonna say Justine was there too?"

Chris opened his mouth but no sounds came out.

"You two made it to Harvard but you split up not long after." Vera leaned closer. "Was that cause you two couldn't talk about the elephant in the room?"

"Cause you knew what happened, and you looked the other way?" Jeffries added.

A pained look formed over Chris' face.

"He was your best friend." Vera said.

"And she was the girl I loved." Chris said, looking at him. "You have no idea how much she sacrificed for us. She didn't even want to go to Harvard. She picked it because that's where I wanted to go." Chris looked far off, back to being a teenager again. "We had a future planned together."

"It's been twenty-two years." Vera shook his head. "That future ain't gonna happen, and hidin' your head in the sand won't change that."

Chris, seemingly on the verge of tears, lowered his head and sighed. "We were supposed to go to the movies that night but she cancelled. She called me, asked if she could borrow my car. She wouldn't say why. The next day my dad was giving me a hard time, asking me where I was that I got so much mud over the wheels." He put a hand over his head and closed his eyes.

* * *

Lilly was still trying to get caught up on her paperwork when she saw Scotty bringing Justine in. Justine turned to look at her and Lilly was certain she saw a flicker of recognition in Justine's eyes.

She was already hurrying over to Stillman by the time Justine was in the other room, out of earshot.

"Let me try and talk to her, boss." Stillman shifted, but Lilly continued before he could say anything. "Look, you were right. I got history with this case, but I got history with her too. She remembers me. She'll talk to me."

Stillman looked pensive for a moment, before sighing and giving her a curt nod.

Scotty opened the door for her, giving a supportive nod and smile as she walked in.

* * *

Justine stared at Lilly with confusion as she walked in and sat down, the yearbook in her hand.

"Hi, Justine." Lilly said with a friendly smile.

"Lilly? Lilly Rush?" Justine asked, still looking at her.

"Yeah." Lilly nodded. "Haven't seen you since, what, graduation?"

"What are you doing here?"

Lilly shrugged. "I'm a detective now."

Lilly opened the yearbook to the page with the picture of Matt, Justine, and Chris. "I've been finding out a lot more about Matt. I never knew he had a sister."

Justine listened silently.

Lilly looked down at the pciture. "I guess you probably knew him better than I ever did. Friends your whole lives, the three of you. I'm just sorry I never got the chance to really know him."

Justine was quiet for a moment, as if thinking of something. "He was smart. He was really, really smart." She gave a slight smile as she looked at Lilly. "He had such a crush on you. He said he wanted to know what you were like." Lilly and Justine both smiled. "Still took him a whole year to work up the guts to talk to you though."

Lilly chucked at this, before her looked turned a bit more solemn. "I hear he could be kind of persistent too. If found out something was wrong, or if someone was in trouble, he wouldn't give up. He wouldn't let it go."

Justine's smile faded as she looked somewhere far away. "No, he wouldn't."

"Not everyone appreciates that. Some people might've wanted him to mind his own business."

A bitter look passed over Justine's face. "Some people might've."

"You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Justine turned away but Lilly leaned closer. "Justine, we know was Mr. Mueller was doing to those girls, to you." Justine breathed heavily at this. "Matt was going to expose him. You were at the school the night Matt was killed, and you borrowed Chris' car after."

Justine said nothing.

"You caught up with him that night, didn't you, Justine?"

Still nothing.

Lilly stared at her. "You and Chris were in love. You had to be together, didn't you? No matter the cost."

Justine closed her eyes. "There were so many other kids at school, just wandering aimlessly, not knowing what they were going to do with their lives. Not me. I knew exactly what I wanted, exactly how my life was gonna be. I was so sure."

"We all were." Lilly said gently. "You and Chris thought you were going to have a life together. Matt thought he was an only child." She smiled wistfully. "I thought he was going to take me to the movies. Things didn't work out the way we thought."

"No." Justine shook her head and looked at the yearbook picture, as a pained look formed on her face. "They didn't..."

* * *

_Staring into the washroom mirror, Justine looked herself over one last time. She'd fixed her hair, make-up, and clothes as best she could. There was only so much she could do until she got home._

_She stepped out of the bathroom and glared at the bulletin board on the wall. At the center was a smiling picture of Mueller, next to a brightly-colored notice announcing him as Teacher of the Year. Justine stared at it until she heard a heavy door opening at the other end of the hall. She was just able to make out Matt, before he stepped out the door._

_Immediately, she broke into a run, hurrying out the door and down the steps. It was already dark out, with no one else around. She called his name until he turned around._

_"Justine, what are you still doing here?" Matt said, smiling as he walked towards her, maneuvering around the stacks of bricks and sheets of plastic the contractors had left. "You still up for the drive-in tonight?" He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I could use a break after this crazy week."_

_She just stared at him. "You can't tell anyone."_

_Matt winced. "Oh, what? You too now? No, I'm not gonna just forget it, all right? That girl's my sister. She's family."_

_Justine shook her head defiantly. "No, family is someone who's been there for you your whole life, who you know better than anyone. Is some girl you just met more important you than Chris and I?"_

_"This isn't about you! It's about her and what Mr. Mueller's doing to her. You have any idea what this could do to her?"_

_"She'll be fine." Justine said, starting to shake. "It's not that bad."_

_"How the hell would you--" The realization set in and Matt took a step back, a mix of horror and heartbreak on his face. "No. No, not you too."_

_"It's not what you think, all right? I told him I had to get into Harvard. He said he knew people there, and he... he asked me how bad I wanted to get in, and he..." She shook her head, trying to keep tears from coming. "It's not that bad, honest."_

_Matt just looked at her. "You let him touch you just so he could get you into a school?"_

_"It'll be worth it when me and Chris can stay together."_

_"Nothing's worth this! This is crazy!"_

_"We had a plan. We were gonna go to Harvard together. We're gonna have a life together."_

_"Look, my dad always says sometimes life throws you a curve and--"_

_"I don't care what your dad says!" Justine shrieked, causing Matt to recoil nervously. "We had a plan!" Tears started flowing "I can't give it up now, not after everything I've done."_

_Matt looked at her for a moment sympathetically. "I'm gonna tell my dad. I'm gonna make this right."_

_"We had a plan." Justine whispered as a tear rolled down her cheek._

_Matt simply shook his head and started walking away._

_"We had a plan!" She repeated louder, starting to follow him._

_Matt kept walking._

_Justine looked down at the stack of bricks next to her. She looked closely at one, then picked it up, stepping closer to Matt._

_She glared through tears, gritted her teeth, and swung the brick. Matt grunted when it made contact with the back of his head. He fell to the ground head first, leaving a bloody patch on the edge of the pavement, before rolling onto the grassy part of the yard._

_Justine dropped the blood-covered brick, covered her mouth, and stared at Matt. His eyes were closed. He didn't move. After a few moments, she looked around until her eyes came to rest on one of the plastic sheets and the wheelbarrow next to it. She walked over to Matt, kicking dirt over the patch of blood on the pavement along the way, then grabbed his arms._

_Wincing under the weight, she started to slowly drag him towards the plastic..._

* * *

("Heaven" - Bryan Adams)

Lilly sat patiently, watching Justine write her statement as tears rolled down Justine's face.

Out in the squad room Chris stood up as he saw Lilly and Scotty escort Justine, now in handcuffs, out of the interview room. Their eyes fell immediately on each other. Chris walked over and pulled her into an embrace. They stayed there for a moment until Lilly and Scotty were forced to separate them. Chris could only stand there and watch as they walked her away, and lowered his head sadly after she was out of sight...

Swiveling his stool slightly in the bar, Steve continued flirting with the young woman, no more than half his age, sitting next to him. After a minute the young woman, looking very uncomfortable, stood up and left. Steve just waved her off dismissively as she walked away. He turned to the bartender to order another drink, and threw it back as soon as the bartender handed it to him...

Carrie and the three other women stood up as they saw Scotty and Jeffries escort Mueller through the police station. Scotty kept a hard grip on Mueller's handcuffed wrist. Mueller didn't notice any of the women. They just watched in awe as the detectives walked him away...

Stillman carried the case box, with the name 'TAMLYN, M.' marked on the side and the word 'CLOSED' marked on the lid, through the storage room and set it away with the other boxes on the shelves...

Carrie crouched down to place the flowers on the pavement outside the school, taking a moment to hold the dog tag around her neck. She looked up to see Richard standing over her, having already set his flowers down, holding a dog tag in his hand, just like hers.

They stared at each other for a moment, tears welling up, before Carrie reached tentatively for his arm, and they finally pulled each other into a hug.

Lilly watched them from a few feet away. She turned to the right and saw Matt standing next to her, watching his father and sister proudly. He looked back at Lilly, giving her a grateful smile. She smiled back, feeling seventeen again just for a moment. Matt gave her one last look, then turned away. Lilly watched as he walked off and faded away.

THE END


End file.
